Marriage and Divorce in the Mukhtasar

Al-Quduri's treatment of personal status law in the Mukhtasar covers the major categories of marriage and dissolution with the same precision he brings to ibadah. These chapters reflect the Hanafi school's characteristic emphasis on legal form: the valid marriage contract requires specific elements, and its dissolution must follow defined procedures, regardless of the parties' intentions or emotional states.

On nikah (marriage), al-Quduri states the foundational requirement: an offer (ijab) and acceptance (qabul) pronounced in the same sitting in the presence of two adult male witnesses (or one male and two female witnesses). The Hanafi school's requirement of two witnesses as a condition of validity distinguishes it from the Maliki school, which treats publicity in other forms as sufficient. Al-Quduri presents the Hanafi position without elaborating the comparative debate.

The section on mahr (the obligatory gift from husband to wife) covers the minimum amount — ten dirhams in the Hanafi school — the categories of prompt and deferred mahr, and the wife's right to withhold herself until the prompt mahr is paid. Al-Quduri also addresses the situation in which no mahr was specified in the contract, noting that the wife is entitled to the customary mahr of women of her social standing (mahr al-mithl) in such cases.

On prohibited degrees of marriage, al-Quduri covers the permanent prohibitions arising from blood relation, marriage relation, and milk kinship, and the temporary prohibitions such as simultaneous marriage to two sisters. He addresses the rules on a man marrying more than four wives simultaneously — prohibited — and the obligations that arise from polygyny when it is practiced within the permitted limit of four.

The divorce section covers talaq (repudiation) in its various forms. Al-Quduri distinguishes the revocable divorce (talaq raj'i) from the irrevocable divorce, and between a single pronouncement, two pronouncements, and the triple pronouncement that renders the marriage definitively dissolved without the possibility of remarriage until the wife has been married to and divorced from another man. The Hanafi school's position on the validity of a triple divorce pronounced in a single sitting — treating it as a binding triple divorce rather than a single revocable one — is a notable point where the school differs from some contemporary scholarly opinion and from the view attributed to some Companions.

Khul — the wife's initiated dissolution of the marriage in exchange for returning her mahr — is treated as a permissible form of separation. Al-Quduri covers the required elements: the wife's request, the husband's agreement, and the return of the consideration agreed upon. He also addresses fasakh, the dissolution of the marriage by judicial decision, and the grounds on which a judge may order it in the Hanafi view.

The iddah (waiting period) following divorce or the death of the husband is covered in terms of its duration and purpose. For a divorced woman of menstruating age, the iddah is three complete menstrual cycles. For a widow, it is four months and ten days. During this period the divorced wife — if her divorce is revocable — remains entitled to accommodation and financial support from the husband.

These chapters give the student of Hanafi law the structural framework for understanding marriage and its dissolution — a framework that has guided Muslim family life across the Hanafi world for centuries.